After finishing as the Missouri Valley Conference team runner-up for the second straight season, earning the program’s first postseason tournament berth since 2013 and sending a pair of individuals to the NCAA Regional last season, the Valparaiso University men’s golf team is poised to author another successful chapter in the program’s recent run of success with the 2023-24 season upon us.

“We enter the new school year and competitive season with a quiet confidence and a lot of enthusiasm,” head coach Dave Gring said. “We are blessed to return seven of our eight players from last year, only losing Yianni Kostouros to graduation. We added two new players in Elliot Lee from Tillamook, Oregon and Adam Melliere from Zionsville, Indiana. With two consecutive runner-up team finishes in the Missouri Valley Conference Championship, I’m not sure if we have a chip or a boulder on our shoulder. Regardless, we come off a season where we had a historic winning percentage, team scoring average, tournament post-season experience and conference awards. Add to that a team GPA of 3.507 last year and we are ready to raise the bar another notch this year.”

Gring’s team has announced an 11-tournament schedule that begins with four fall events prior to a seven-tournament spring slate. The campaign tees off this Sunday, the first of three days in USAFA, Colo. for the Gene Miranda Falcon Invitational at Eisenhower Golf Club. The annual home tournament is back for the seventh time on Sept. 18-19 at Sand Creek CC in Chesterton. The Beacons will make another trip to the Centennial State on Oct. 2-3 for the Mark Simpson Colorado Invitational at Colorado National GC in Erie, Colo. before the fall concludes with the Monterrey International Invitational on Oct. 27-28 at Club Campestre Monterrey in Monterrey, Mexico.

The program’s list of destinations also includes Dorado, P.R. (TPC Dorado Beach) for the TPC Dorado Beach Collegiate on Feb. 25-27. Valpo will head back to Phoenix, Ariz. for the GCU Invitational (March 11-12) before making its way to Mobile, Ala. for the Mobile Bay Intercollegiate (March 24-26; RTJ Magnolia Grove). The spring slate continues with the Golfweek/AGT Intercollegiate (April 1-3; True Blue GC; Myrtle Beach, S.C.) before a pair of tournaments hosted by Big Ten Conference teams to close out the regular season – the Hoosier Collegiate (April 6-7; Bloomington, Ind.; The Pfau Course) and the Rutherford Intercollegiate (April 13-14; State College, Pa.; Penn State Blue Course). All that leads up to the MVC Championship from April 21-23 at The Club at Porto Cima in Sunrise Beach, Mo.

“In my 13 years as head coach, this will definitely be the most competitive schedule that we have ever played,” Gring said. “We are going to play in four tournaments this fall and we will have seven tournaments in the spring. The fall slate will feature two quality tournaments in Colorado, the Valpo Fall Invitational at our home course and playing outside of the United States in Monterrey, Mexico for the first time in our program history. We will kick off the spring schedule with our first tournament in San Juan, Puerto Rico, followed by tournaments in Arizona, Alabama, South Carolina, Indiana and Pennsylvania. The Club at Porto Cima is a terrific Jack Nicklaus designed course and it will be the site of our Missouri Valley Conference Championship at the end of April. In total, we have some outstanding competitive tournaments in seven different states, Puerto Rico and Mexico for the 2023-24 season.”

Both NCAA Regional qualifiers return this season as Caleb VanArragon (Blaine, Minn. / Blaine) is back for his additional COVID-19 season of eligibility after earning an NCAA at-large berth a year ago, while reigning Missouri Valley Conference individual medalist Anthony Delisanti (Sanborn, N.Y. / Niagara Wheatfield) is back for his junior season after earning an automatic NCAA Regional berth each of the last two years. VanArragon (71.08) and Delisanti (71.17) posted the two best single-season scoring averages in modern program history last year, helping the team to a 290.08 average that also shattered a modern program record. Delisanti and VanArragon both had extremely successful summers on the golf course and are poised to continue their ascension this season.

The aforementioned duo atop the lineup is part of a group of seven returning players that also includes sixth-year Padraic Sim (Spanish Fort, Ala. / Spanish Fort), senior Mason Bonn (Sherwood, Ore. / Sherwood), juniors Sam Booth (Carmel, Ind. / Carmel) and Grant Norman (Fort Wayne, Ind. / Blackhawk) and sophomore Owen Sander (Carmel, Ind. / Carmel). They are joined by a pair of freshmen – Elliot Lee (Tillamook, Ore. / Tillamook) and Adam Melliere (Zionsville, Ind. / Zionsville).

“We will certainly bring a lot of experience to the tournaments we play in this year,” Gring said. “I’m really proud of the guys and all of their efforts in quality practices and tournaments this summer. We had an excellent offseason and I feel that the team is sharp and well-prepared to start competing this fall. Every year, the team has a slightly different feel/composition/dynamic and these guys really want to be competitive, win tournaments and have a lot of fun in the process. Our goals are pretty aggressive for this year, but the team is going to prepare well for each event and enjoy the journey!”